"Jim Crow", a pointed
glacial erratic rock lying horizontally on the village's beach facing the
Firth of Clyde, was known as the "Jim Crow Stone" by 1864, and by 1904 was painted with a face. There have been various suggestions for the inspiration behind the name and design: the
Jim Crow character featured in "
Jump Jim Crow", a song and dance popularised in 1832 by the American minstrel show performer
Thomas D. Rice; local stories suggest it could have been the name of the owner of a nearby builders'/joiners yard; a
jackdaw [which has a black beak but not a red mouth]; or the later
Jim Crow laws which were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Another suggestion is that it was named after the line "So they canonized him by the name of Jim Crow!" in the 1837 poem
The Jackdaw of Rheims. Due to concerns about racism the rock was painted over several times, but repeatedly returned to its original state. The winning design was by a pupil from
Dunoon Grammar School, who with other pupils re-painted the rock in 2021 as a
puffin. ==Transport==